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Aural Pleasure: The Importance of Audio in Video Games

Aural Pleasure: The Importance of Audio in Video Games

I loaded up Bioshock to show it to a friend one day last week when he said something that made me chuckle.

"There goes that ADD again."

It's a running gag between this close friend and me that, though I have a healthy respect for an artist's intentions, bending them doesn't bother me too much.

This wasn't too heinous a violation; I'd only turned on ESPN while the game loaded. However, I've been known to do things like play my DS during movies and read web pages during board games.

Those examples are rare, but I have a regular habit, as I referred to indirectly in this column, of playing games muted with all manner of things (TV shows, conversations, or, in this case, podcasts) on in the background. I've explained this away by noting situations I consider similar; that is, other times when a person does one thing while listening to another. These include working out and listening to an iPod, or driving and listening to the radio.

The contentious issue with that logic is that games are sometimes something more than mundane tasks. Beyond the Maddens, Ratatouilles, and Burnouts of the world (as much as I love them) lie games like Bioshock, that go beyond requesting a gamer's full attention; they demand it. When I play a game like Ken Levine's, I tune in 100%. Then and only then do I.

Much like the issue of casual vs. hardcore games, this dichotomy is one that looms large to me. There are some games I won't play: the bad, or the mediocre. Others I'll play but divide my attention away from: the solid and perhaps great. The games I devote my full attention to are unique: classics.

My point is that a game is an experience with a lot of parts, and what separates the good from the outstanding is how the parts fit together. Playing Bioshock muted is like eating a banana with the peel on; it's not nearly as good. You might even say it's a perversion of the experience. That's the line that makes audio important in games.

Eventually, perhaps, visual fidelity will have reached maximum quality, and sound will become what draws attention to transcendent games. Perhaps developers will cotton onto it, and games like Gran Turismo and Tony Hawk will become essential aural experiences. Until that happens, they'll only command part of my view. The day I can't stand to mute NBA 2K will be the day that games truly arrive. When that day comes, my "ADD" will be defeated at last.